I got really inspired maybe a year or two ago when watching the Castlevania Netflix series. I started putting together a setting module for it but it lingered in a half started state – as do most of my projects.
But I picked it up again at the start of the month – I wanted something to run for Halloween.
As it’s the last thing I was working on – and I didn’t want to spend too long on it – I’ve built it for Rove.
It started as one card like Tomb of the Gilded Dead but I had too many ideas and wanted to give them some space. So its 3 (soon to be six i think). Perhaps one day I’ll return and flesh it out fully – I have many more ideas than I could fit.
Anyway – it’s kind of three things.
Monster Hunters
The first is just some evocative classes and monsters to fight with them. I wanted a monster hunting vibe – so the core abilities of the classes make them better at killing than normal Rove Characters.
This is the core idea of Rove – modular rules you can just add to to create the vibe you’re after.
The monsters are supposed to be nasty – but made much easier if you can research and gather the right gear to take them on (Silver, Wooden stakes, etc)
80% of the monsters aren’t finished – i’ll add them to the itch page in the next few days hopefully.
Setting Generator
Velorain is the setting. Everyone knows what it is – generic dark fantasy eastern europe kind of place. Dracula country. I wanted a generator so that it can fit on a business card but also so that it could create unique relationships each time.
I think I succeeded. The main relationships are
- The Castle & its villain
- The Villains & their Horde
- The Temples/Villages & their Oppressing Castles
- The Villages & Nearby Dungeons
As with all my work (and especially Rove) a lot of the connections and setting info is pretty implicit and relies on an experienced Referee and a general knowledge of tropes. I should probably write a post about my thoughts on that sometime.
Anyway – here’s an example of what it can do:
Take your dice and roll them – I arranged mine to be a spread out nicely:
The Village rolls were a little duplicated – so i retcon-ed a couple of them to get some more variety.
Then you link them up. The rules say all neighbouring dice are linked – but as always – take that with some creative liberty. Then the closest dungeons to the castles determine what kind of a force the villain there is mustering – and Voila! My Velorain:
I think it looks pretty sick. Obviously heavily inspired by the legendary In Cörpathium by Logan Knight https://lastgaspgrimoire.com/2014/10/08/in-corpathium/
I’ll see how running a game with it goes.
Castle Generator
Lastly, this one felt necessary for a Vania-esque setting. This time I was inspired by the derelict ship generator from Mothership’s Dead Planet. Figured i’d try and fit a similar table into a business card. Obviously I made some concessions but I think it worked out.
Heres what I rolled to give you a flavour of what it can do:
Ill hopefully give this a proper go in the session I run with it later this month.
So that’s Midnight Hunt. Pretty speedy production on this one so I don’t think it’s my finest work – but you have all the images – feel free to run it! I dare you!
If you do, let me know how it goes. If you like it – consider throwing me a buck or two on itch.io – thats also how you can get a more convenient PDF of all the pages.
I’ll try and put together the cards for the remaining monsters soon. I’ll stick it all up on the itch once it’s done.
See you next time.
Olobosk